Misrata council chairman resigns

Tripoli, 10 January 2013:

Misrata ex-council chairman Salim Beit Almal

The chairman of Misrata local council has resigned.  He is the second leader of the council to quit the job in the 11 months since Misrata became one of the first municipalities in the country to hold local elections.

Salim Beit Almal was elected council leader on 1 August, following the resignation of the previous council chairman.

It is not known why he has resigned but the council has been crippled by a lack of funding from central government ever since the revolution. It has had to rely on funding from local businessmen for many of its services.

Almal’s predecessor, Yusuf Ben Yusuf, was heavily criticised by local residents for failing to meet expectations but this was largely due to the absence of central government funding.

Almal’s election was initially controversial.

He is a member of the Muslim Bortherhood and when it was announced that he had won the vote to be council leader, a group of local revolutionaries demanded fresh elections, saying they would not accept someone from the Brotherhood in charge of the city. Their objections were ignored.

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